Former leading New Zealand publisher and bookseller, and widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, talks about what he is currently reading, what impresses him and what doesn't, along with chat about the international English language book scene, and links to sites of interest to booklovers.

Saturday, December 08, 2012

Honours shared in October Global Short Story Competition

Judge Fiona Cooper has selected her winners
for the October Global Short Story Competition and, in an unusual move, found
herself unable to separate two top quality stories. That means we are
announcing joint winners and splitting the £125 prize money between the
authors.

Explaining her decision, Fiona
says: “There are two winners this month since the qualities of both stories are
so different and excellent in their own way. Beautiful writing and reflection
and a style begging to develop a novel on one hand; on the other a story so
stark it reads like an apocalyptic vision.”

One of the winners is Passing Away by Paul
Freeman, of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, of which Fiona says: “The
concept of this story has an echo of both George Orwell and Auberon Waugh at
their bleak incisive best. In our current political climate where even the doom
laden Cassandra would appear quite jolly, this story takes materialist policy
to an inevitable and hideous conclusion. The last line is a spine chilling
stroke of genius.”

The other joint winner is Scarred by
Charlotte Soares, of Richmond, Surrey, England, of which Fiona says: “The
language in this piece is superb, flowing and poetic and I just wanted to read
more. This is a style which uses alliteration, concealed rhyme and rhythm and
imagery in a rich and assured manner. To write like this without overdoing it,
or losing the thread of the story is remarkable, Wonderful!“